Management Students to Learn About the World of Finance Through Trading Actual Securities

Feb. 14, 2013

Dozens of finance students soon will be spending part of their days analyzing stock performance, checking returns and keeping up with investment trends as participants in the Naveen Jindal School of Management’snew student-run investment fund.

The Jindal School joins hundreds of business schools nationwide that have set up student-managed investment funds, most funded through endowments or donor funds, as teaching tools that offer future investment professionals a chance to manage real money while receiving course credit and earning their degrees.

Finance professor Robert Kieschnick's family established the UT Dallas Student Investment Corp. with a donation last fall.

The UT Dallas Student Investment Corp. was established last fall, thanks to a donation from the family of Jindal School finance professor Dr. Robert Kieschnick, who recognized the importance of giving students the skills needed to be successful in the highly competitive finance world.

“We’ve been encouraging students to get involved in investing and have offered multiple opportunities for students to learn about investing and managing money,” said Kieschnick, an associate professor who is coordinator of the Jindal School’s Finance and Managerial Economics area. These opportunities have included a high school stock market competition and mock portfolio competitions, he said, “but students want to manage real money.”

The investment funds will give students an ongoing, structured way of managing investment funds, Kieschnick said. “The funds also give students the ability to recognize their experience on their résumés, as they will be interns of the UT Dallas Student Investment Corporation.”

The Kieschnick family donated $60,000 to launch the funds — $30,000 for the undergraduate fund, which focuses on domestic securities; and $30,000 for the graduate fund, which focuses on emerging market securities. Part of the money generated by both funds, Kieschnick said, will fund student scholarships.

“We’ve been encouraging students to get involved in investing and have offered multiple opportunities for students to learn about investing and managing money. ... But students want to manage real money.”

Dr. Robert Kieschnick,coordinator of theJindal School’s Finance and Managerial Economics area

“We’re still waiting for the tax ruling, and once we get that, we can begin soliciting additional funds. To maintain a 501(c)(3), or nonprofit status, we have to raise the majority of the funds from more than one source, and at the moment, it’s coming from one source,” Kieschnick said.

Finance students will not only get to trade stocks, but they’ll also get to experience the excitement of Wall Street in late 2014 when the school’s future stock marketing trading lab opens its doors. A fully equipped trading lab, which will be located in the Jindal School’s new addition scheduled for completion in 2014, will model the best trading rooms in financial capitals worldwide.

The lab, which will be equipped with an electronic ticker, video wall, multiple work stations, Bloomberg terminals and advanced trading software, will be designed for the student-managed investment fund, research, classroom teaching, professional development and presentations.

“This will allow students to develop the kinds of skills that many employers are wanting,” said Kieschnick.

To participate in the investment fund, students must first take an investment management course (FIN 4300 for undergraduates and FIN 6310 for graduate students). To sign up for the investment fund course (FIN 4380 for undergraduates and FIN 6380 for graduate students), students must first get approval from the instructor.

For more information about the undergraduate fund, contact Jared Pickens, director of the undergraduate finance program. For more information about the graduate fund, contact Mark McNabb.

To support the fund, contact Erica Yaeger, assistant dean of development and alumni relations, at erica.yaeger@utdallas.edu or 972-883-5855.